Sunday, September 11, 2016

Meme theory manque

I read Sapiensby Yuval Harari, and liked things about it. Now he's got a new book out -- Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow -- excerpted in Wired. Putting aside his affection for the "brief history" trope... from the excerpt, it seems to exhibit the same strengths and limitations of the prior volume. Meme theory -- and information theory -- are fuller explanations than is his. I'll be interested to see if he addresses either -- e.g., whether Dawkinsor Seife or Gleick.or Dysonshow up in his index.